


Apple Adventure

by devilinthedetails



Category: PIERCE Tamora - Works, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Bobbing for apples, Family, Friendship, Fun, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-08-10 01:54:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16461221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/devilinthedetails/pseuds/devilinthedetails
Summary: Young Jon and Gary bob for apples.





	Apple Adventure

Apple Adventure

“What do we do now?” Jon stared skeptically down at the hogshead filled with water into which Gary had just plunked two ripe Olau apples. 

“We fish them out with our teeth.” Gary flashed a grin that revealed the jagged, jack-o-lantern edges where some of his milk teeth had fallen out and not yet been replaced by adult ones. “Whoever catches his apple first wins.” 

“Wins what?” Jon hadn’t yet decided whether he liked this game. It seemed much more straightforward to simply munch on the apples without the bother of snatching them out of the barrel of water first. 

“The thrill of victory and being able to boast in our success.” Gary pronounced this as if it were a marvelous prize one might win at a tournament rather than an uninspiring one. 

“That’s a lame prize.” Jon’s chin jutted out mulishly until an idea to raise the stakes–and thus the excitement–of the game struck him like lightning, making his eyes shine with satisfaction. “Whoever catches his apple first should get to dunk the other one underwater.” 

“I hope you’re ready to get soaked.” Gary’s gaze sparkled with mischief as he shook hands with Jon, accepting the challenge. 

On the count of three, they plunged their faces into the water, which stung at Jon’s eyes and nostrils. Everything blurred in the water, and almost blindly, Jon’s teeth fumbled about, seeking an apple in which to sink. His teeth were brushing against one that kept floating just out of his grasp when suddenly he was shoved to the bottom of the barrel. 

Startled by the abrupt submersion, he made the mistake of gasping in water. His heartbeat thudded with the fear that he might drown–the first prince in Tortall’s long history to die in a hogshead, he was shamefully sure–before the hands pressing him down released him, and he rose to the top again. 

As Gary clapped him genially on the back, Jon glared indignantly at his cousin, who had an apple hanging triumphantly by its stem between two of his remaining milk teeth. At last, he managed to sputter, “You could have drowned me. What would the country have done if you’d drowned me?” 

Gary removed the apple clamped between his teeth and took a cheekily crunchy bite before replying cheerfully, “Gotten down on their knees to thank me, no doubt.” 

This constituted such terrible provocation that Jon lurched at his cousin, aiming to tackle the bigger boy to the ground and wrestle the apple from him with sheer determination.


End file.
